


How do you keep the music playing

by lesbian4lochness



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe, Basically really just me projecting my love for 1940s music, Breakfast at tiffany's- audrey hepburn, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Everyone Is Gay, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Frank Sinatra - Freeform, Jazz - Freeform, M/M, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Pansexual Shiro (Voltron), References to Depression, Swing Dancing, This is such a project-y fic i hope some people can relate anyway, Title from an 80s sinatra song that makes me cry, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, background klance, jazz band
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 00:27:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17735531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbian4lochness/pseuds/lesbian4lochness
Summary: The Altea Jazz Lounge was a small, bland building that hosted anything but.Niche jazz band AU , featuring a million songs about moons and the nerds that play them.





	How do you keep the music playing

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is purely self indulgent. I may make it multi-chapter by considering my luck the last time I tried to do that, it isn't likely. Enjoy!

The Altea Jazz Lounge was a small, bland building that hosted anything but.  
Its six stories stacked to a moderate height, and most of its space was vertical rather than horizontal. As one would imagine, this wasn't ideal for a dance hall, but their patrons made do. 

The main floor served as both a museum and a lobby, scattered with old instruments and newspaper clippings from the 1920s to the 1950s. In the far corner, a beaten old record player spun Sinatra nonstop, the smooth sound greeted newcomers and seasoned veterans alike. 

Walking through the lounge's arched door was like walking through a portal through time.  
As soon as the front door was out of view, so was the rest of the world. The smell of the modern streets faded, and in its place came something old and well worn.  
The rain outside, freshly brewed coffee from a table upstairs, and period brand pomade formed a very distinct , perfume-y haze that fell over the hall.

It was Matt’s favorite place in the world, and a certain singer had a habit of making it all the better.

 

“Take it from 26, and please don't miss your entrance this time” Came Pidge’s exasperated voice from behind him at the piano.

“W-huh?”

It was easy to doze off at work, which was fine by Matt, but not so fine by his boss.  
Something about the dimmed lights and toasty air put everyone in some Bing crosby-induced trance that was hard to pull yourself from. Pidge kicked his shin from behind, and sat back down at her bench, scowling.

“Hey! Wha- why would you do that!” Matt Jumped from his seat, jostling his music stand and spilling “Fly me to the moon” everywhere. 

“Because you were too busy taking a nap to come in!” 

Matt Rubbed the back of his calf, wincing  
“You're wearing Steel Toed boots!”

She sighed again, a trend that was beginning.  
“Entrance, Matthew!”

“Steel toes, Pidge!”

“Okay,” Shiro, thank the lord, intervened with a mediating hand and a friendly grin “Lets not assault him over this. We've all missed a solo or two. It's no big deal.

Lance snorted from the back, flipping his music to measure 26, as per the younger holt's orders. “Yeah but he's the only one who misses it because he's too busy ogling Sh-”

“I am Not” Matt Said with all the maturity the phrase deserved 

“Are too!”

“At least it didn't take me 3 days of rehearsal to stop messing up the same part!”

Lance scoffed “It was hard!”

“You play One note the entire time!” Matt Got up to exacerbate his point 

“It's just an A. Over and over again, like this” he then proceeded to go ‘'doot doot doot” in a pale imitation of Lance’s trumpeting

“Shiro, he's bullying me”

“Okay,” He said again, fighting the grin that was beginning to crack. “Why don't we start playing. And then, you can prove that you play more than 'doof”

“Its doot, Takashi. Doot.” 

This time, he did grin. Matt even got a soft chuckle out of him“Okay, then. Doot”

And so they played, and Matt (narrowly)made his entrance, and Lance dooted, and the only thoughts in Matt's head aside from Fuck, where's the note was how beautiful Shiro looked at the Mic, singing jazz under the crimson stage lights and how he, Matthew Holt was completely fucked. 

Now, it was one thing to have total crush on your straight best friend. It hurt to have your heart broken, to long for something that could never happen, but some part of Matt, in all of his escapades, always knew in some part of him that it would never happen. This? This was an entirely different disaster. 

Because Shiro wasn't straight, not even in the slightest. Shiro had been an out and proud Pansexual since they were teens, Matt with acne and Shiro playing soccer (dumb jock) , the two of them dreaming for the stars. And knowing your Unattainable Best Friend Crush was never going to like you back for reasons contrary to sexuality was, perhaps, even more heartbreaking. At least if shiro was Straight, it wouldn't be personal. That way was more of a slow burn, hurt plenty but not all at once. No, his crush on Shiro was full fledged, steel toed boot to the calf, a bruising pain that was sure to leave a mark.

And on top of everything else, they were coworkers. Both working in the lounge band,with Shiro teaching the swing lesson each evening, he and Shiro were a living, breathing HR disaster.

Keith gave them 4 pick up beats on the snare, and they plunged into the song

Fill my heart with song, and let me sing forever more  
Shiro began to sing to the almost empty room, working an invisible crowd with very visible charm. Shiro didn't sound exactly like Sinatra, his voice was more straightforward, and his range was shorter, but Matt didn't care. He imagined him as the original singer, crooning in a 1940s nightclub somewhere, spinning magic with his voice.  
In his fantasies, it was snowing outside, and the flakes stuck to Shiro's lashes. He was late for the concert, and everyone waited on him. Fantasy-Shiro would apologize and wink his way into the room, a commanding presence. He'd shed his coat onto a lounge chair just as he begun to sing. It didn't matter they were in the middle of the song, or that it was April and the snow had been melted for months, or even that everyone that didn't have an instrument in their hand had a very not period accurate iPhone in it.

You are all I long for

Suddenly, as if they were in a movie (which, they sort of were, if his vivid imagination counted as film) Shiro would meet Matt's eyes and flash a sly smile of instant recognition.

All I worship, and adore

In his imagination, the room was filled with couples dancing along to their music. That part didn't take a lot to imagine- in a few minutes, dancers would file in and create a very similar scene. But the general sense of romance would be absent, as Matthew was on the clock, and as long as one was working all that was good and romantic was gone.

In other words

Fantasy Shiro would raise an elegant eyebrow at Matt from the crowd, a sort of beckoning , or even a question. And Matt would reach the stage in slow, long strides, and listen to his music 

Please, be true

Shiro's eyes met his, with the kind of heat that made Matt melt. They were warm and deep, Shiros eyes, and Matt loved them as much as he loved the rest of him. 

In other words,

Shiro extended his hand, leading Matt up onto the stage with him. The bass reverberated through the stage, and vibrated with a thrum within Matt, along with something else. In the fantasy, they were close. Too close for Matt to just be reading into it, and Shiro had to angle the microphone for it to still pick up his voice. Matt could feel his and Shiro's breath mingling, smell his old timey cologne, feel the skin underneath his shirt.

I love y-

“Ow! Pidge

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you again for reading!  
> Go bother me on Tumblr http://kopescetic.tumblr.com


End file.
